Nordhorn, Germany.

There is an PDF version of a magazine article with additional photographs here: SCHOEN

Failure of Beauty
A sand painting that echoes two panels on the wall. Images are of two 17 year old girls,
one Palestinian and the other Israeli, who, although total strangers, walked into a Jerusalem
supermarket at the same time. Witnesses said they saw them smile at one another and thought
they might be sisters doing the family shopping. The Palestinian girl was carrying a bomb,
detonated it, and both, along with many others, died.

(Clicking on the image will enlarge it in a new JavaScript Popup window.)

"Failure of Beauty"

Failure of Truth
An 8M x 8M work in sand in the shape of a B2 Stealth Bomber with formed sand hemispheres
spelling out (in Braille code) the famous "16 words" that Bush spoke in the State of the Union Address,
January 2003, during the push for war with Iraq.

"Failure of Truth"

"Failure of Liberty"
In another corner of the pavilion, initially hidden by partial walls, is a take on the Bush Administration's re-design of the Statue of Liberty. Altered to more accurately reflect this faction's attitude towards Europe. A four sided box, 3 meters high. Loose, formed sand at the base. Each side has a different view of the finger.

"Failure of Liberty"

"Mount Shasta"
A wall-size projection of "Mount Shasta"
This Photo-Novella project, available since 2001 on the Internet as a serialized,
streaming Flash movie, was re-configured as a DVD allowing better resolution and surround stereo sound.

"Mount Shasta"

In the room next to the projection, an homage to Salvador Dali to coincide with his 100th birthday.
A re-staging of the famous Dali collaboration with photographer Philippe Halsman from 1951: "In Voluptate Mors".
This project was done in collaboration with German photographer Helmut Claus.

Important to Note: This idea of actually recreating the famous image that convinced me as a child that I wanted to become an artist... this idea would never had occurred to me if it had not been for the profound influence of my very wonderful old friend, Mike Bidlo.

Santino-Dali Photo Project.

A 50 Unit of Failure Certificate was created for the exhibition.

The Certificate

I Must Apologize

The Apology

Peter Santino
March 6, 2015
Background photo on this page is of the artist with Jan Hoet.